About the Perfumer
"The Forbidden Temple" is masterfully perfumed by independent perfumer Paul Kiler. Paul is a well known and very well respected award-winning perfumer within the industry, winning 19 awards within his first 10 months of business, as well as the prestigious Aftel Award for handmade perfume at the 2019 Art and Olfaction Awards.
A few years before he started learning perfumery, the popular trend in men's perfumes during the 1990's was men's "sport" fragrances. All of these "sport" fragrances gave Paul a headache, so he set out to create his own scent in rebellion to this popular trend; one that he could enjoy and not have an adverse reaction to, and that was a full and orchestral composition with ingredients he enjoyed. Self-taught over the next few years, Paul made incredible strides within the industry, exceeding in his craft as he honed his skill.
With almost 20 years of experience, he is most notably known for his work with Schiff bases and also has his own line of fragrances under his brand PK Perfumes, and as well, is the perfumer for the 2014 released Zoologist Panda and Zoologist Rhinoceros perfumes.
It is Paul's incredible work with Schiff bases and captive molecules that attracted us to him; one of which is featured in "The Forbidden Temple"! We could not be more proud to have him as the nose for our second release!
Perfumer's Statement
“Wow, Do I Love Tea! I’ve got a whole Tea Cabinet in the Kitchen… And because I love Tea and the smell of tea, as a Perfumer, I’ve been working on making the lovely smells of tea for almost a decade. Quite a number of failures in the early years too… By the time that Chris contacted me, I had fairly successfully made accords for Black Tea, Green Tea, and White Tea.
My Son who is 18 knows that I love tea, of course, and two Christmases ago he gave me an amazing bottle of tea he’d found at TJ Maxx; some Apricot Jasmine Tea. The AROMA of that TEA! Wow. And so I set about studying the odor profile, and making an Apricot Jasmine tea base for fragrances. (And I have thanked my Son numerous times since his gift… And coincidentally, my very nice Apricot base was also finished in about the same time period as receiving the tea for Christmas). I also really love incense as well, and I’ve made several incense bases for fragrances, ~ also as yet unused publicly.
So when Chris asked me for a Tea and Incense fragrance, I talked him into letting me unleash Apricot Jasmine Tea and Incense on him and his brand. I’m so pleased with how this worked out, as it’s a lovely blend of the four ideas: Apricots, Jasmine flowers, a Green and Black Tea blend, and Incense.
I also made a very special molecule that ties together Tea, Jasmine, and Incense for a very long lasting basenote. This is a molecule that is likely in no other perfume in the world, as I made it for you, expressly for this perfume.
My Family visited Tokyo and Kyoto for last Christmas vacation, and so I am placing some evocative atmospheric images and locations here for you to enjoy also. It was an amazing experience, and the images that I made there are lovely… Keep it Smelly!”
Fragrantly Yours,
Paul Kiler
PK Perfumes
"When I had the idea...
to release a fragrance called "The Forbidden Temple" with the narrative I wanted to portray, I really wanted to do it justice and not have it be another "run of the mill" perfume with an Asian themed name. Brands do this all the time but there rarely is any sort of real tie-in to the actual fragrance.
My vision was to release a tea fragrance unlike anything else I have ever smelled. So how does one accomplish this? What's a way to take a genre of fragrances that is so common, and turn it into something unique? Anyone can do a "tea fragrance", but what will make ours really stand out, above of all the rest? Given that the whole idea behind the Statik Olfactive brand is to be more on the artisanal side of perfumery with fragrances meant to provide a sense of imagery and really be able to paint a picture for the wearer, how do we do that? So we got to thinking, lets break down tea in itself. Deconstruct it. Where does it come from? What is it known for?
Chinese and all Asian culture is something that I personally love and appreciate in my everyday life. I've long been interested in Asian culture, fascinated in its history and origins since a young child. My original thought for this fragrance was for a dark Chinese plum, jasmine, incense, and black tea as the 4 main players. But the combination of the dark plum base with the incense and black tea just made the formula too dark, and this is not the scent I envisioned.
So when Paul let me know about the possibility of trying his apricot base instead, in combination with some added green tea mixed into the formula to lighten it up a bit, I was all in. Not only was I excited because this would still keep true to my requirements of making this scent a historically and geographically correct one, but apricot is a note not often found in perfumery. So Paul got to work. What he has created is truly something special, and I am hard pressed to think of any other perfumer out there could have done a better job. "The Forbidden Temple" is truly a fragrance that pays homage to the long rooted Chinese culture of which I respect and adore, paying tribute to its beautiful history, with use of ingredients that are truly transportive."
- Chris Martin
Creative Director / Statik Olfactive Fragrances
Did you know...
Tea is widely used and celebrated in many Asian cultures. Historically, tea has been consumed for many reasons; albeit spiritual, holistic, ritualistic, relaxation, tradition, health reasons, etc... I wanted to focus more on the spiritual/meditative/ritualistic side, something that tea has been used as for centuries. When learning the history of tea and incense, and about the religious and spiritual ties to them when used in ceremonies, it is during these spiritual and meditative practices that incense would often be burned as well to give a calming, tranquil vibe.